Bill's take on the Sunday Morel Hunt

Reta and I checked out the area we hunted Saturday and Sunday, but only found a couple of morels. Then we hunted along Cabin Creek, but found nothing. Then we drove over the bridge and started hunting about four tenths of a mile on the south side of the road. We ended up walking for miles and found the road on top that one can take just as one crosses the bridge. Turn right. We like to hunt the areas that Kevin hunts because he misses so many that we can have a really good day of hunting. We also found an aspen that had been cut down in the burn area and it was covered with oysters so we brought those home, also. Thanks Kevin for leaving those for us.

Part of Reta's mother lode Immediately behind Reta she found 54 large morels in an area no larger than ten by twenty feet. We found one other about ten feet from that area. She was stoked. She had been having some trouble spotting the morels. Usually she finds them and then I try to find some around the area. But, Wednesday I had the upper hand. Then she found the mother lode. Pretty exciting.You have to understand that when one hunts morels with Reta that one is in for an adeventure. We have our bucket full of one hundred morels. We are hoofing it back on a logging road when I hear a shriek behind me. I turn to see Reta fumbling for her camera and looking down a hole that looks very much like a snake hole. I am thinking there are snakes up here? No there is a tree frog. He/she is only an inch long or so. Cute. Reta does have a picture of a snake though that she might post, but she is busy getting ready to leave for Italy Saturday morning. We found the bull snake dead on the MF road near highway 95. I rolled back to get a better look at it and Reta snapped the picture from the open window of the pickup. I suggested that she could get a better angle by opening the door (after all the snake is dead). That suggestion gained no traction whatsoever. Debbie and Jim look over the Sunday morning take. Debbie is an experienced Wisconsin morel hunter. She explained to me how she would have to use a walking stick to keep parting the grass to see the morels. Geez, it is hard enough to see the morels without them hiding in the grass. Isn't e-mail transmission wonderful.? I found this slime mold while looking for morels Saturday, but did not know it was slime mold. I just thought it was interesting that when I touched the side of one of these one-eighth inch globes it bled red. I sent the picture to Genny and she sent back the ID. Thanks, Genny!!Bob and Karen on their first mushroom hunt. Bob had no idea what a morel looked like, but he found the first two. Karen had confined her morel hunts to the supermarket where she had great success. I asked them after we found the first two if they were okay with a three way split on the take. They thought that was fine and suggested that they take half. I insisted on a three way split. After they had found the first thirty or so and I still had not found one, I was getting really embarrassed and suggested that they take all the mushrooms. I spent the first half hour running the bucket back and forth between the two. Finally, I found one and seemed to catch up.

We were suppose to be on a fishing trip to Oxbow for smallmouth bass, but when I suggested that I thought it was too cold to go fishing they wanted to know what I was going to do? I suggested a morel hunt and they were up for the challenge. They were very good sports and enjoyed themselves. The others in our party head for Oxbow Saturday morning, but got into a white out snow blizzard on top of Brownlee Summit and turned back for home. On Saturday we found this log of oysters a about five hundred yards west of the Cabin Creek CG. First, about the guy in the campground with the green containers full of morels. Reta and I were hunting yesterday (Wed.) and talked to the guy that operates the grader you might have seen on the MF road near the CG. He says the guy we saw in the grey pickup who was riding the 4-wheeler around was one of two morel buyers who had been in the area buying morels for $9 a pound. The buyer was not in the CG on Wednesday.

Debbie, Jim and I worked the same area that my friends Karen and Bob Maki had worked the day before about three hundred yards north of the CG. Karen, Bob and I had found about 100 morels. Debbie, Jim and I had found 75 in the same area before we ate lunch at 2:00. Debbie split with Genny after lunch and Jim and I worked the same area again and found 62 between 3:00 and 5:20 when we finally left for home.